HILLARY BELIEVES 40% OF AMERICAN VOTERS ARE DEPLORABLE

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has pulled into an effective tie with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, erasing a substantial deficit as he consolidated support among his party's likely voters in recent weeks, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll released Friday.

The poll showed 40 percent of likely voters supporting Trump and 39 percent backing Clinton for the week of Aug. 26 to Sept. 1. Clinton's support has dropped steadily in the weekly tracking pollsince Aug. 25, eliminating what had been a eight-point lead for her.

Speaking at a fundraiser in New York City on Friday, Clinton declared, “You know to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,” she added: “…the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.”

Following her comment, the Democratic nominee has faced backlash on Twitter, with #BasketofDeplorables being the top trending hashtag for hours.

Her statement of regret comes after her spokesman Nick Merrill tried to clarify her comments earlier on Saturday and after Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway called for an apology.